[might come in handy during a demonstration if these prices are still happening]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58180-2002Nov30.html
By Michael Barbaro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 1, 2002; Page A08
At 2:23 a.m., American University freshman Gene Fielden settles into a
chair in the dank basement bus depot at 513 H St NW. He thinks he has
found a way to kill time when the pow-pow-pow of a television movie
erupts from a small set in the corner.
Then the dialogue starts -- in Chinese.
"Easy listening, huh?" he yells, pointing to the speaker above his
head.
Greyhound this is not.
But for Fielden, and for many others who have found their way to
Washington-New York Express Tours' bus stop in Chinatown, or to its
competitor Dragon Expressway & Travel Inc. a block away, this
late-night trip isn't about tidy terminals, frequent departures or
reclining seats. It's about price. To be exact, $10 for a one-way
ticket from Washington to New York. Round trip? $15.
Largely under the radar, a new transportation link has taken hold
between cities up and down the East Coast: Chinatown-to-Chinatown
buses, which originally targeted immigrant Chinese restaurant workers.
Dragon and Washington-New York Express Tours, joined by a handful of
other tiny lines, are now waging an elbows-out battle for dominance in
the niche market. At least four motor-coach companies run routes to
New York's Chinatown -- from the District as well as from Boston,
Philadelphia, Richmond and Baltimore -- in a competition that, in
Manhattan at least, has even broken into violence over parking spaces
and potential passengers.
"We are trying to eliminate the other company," said Tom Wong, 33, a
manager and bus driver for Washington-New York Express Tours. "That's
our only goal. We want to destroy each other."
Rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58180-2002Nov30.html